1.1 SQL Developer System Recommendations

This section describes the recommended minimum values for CPU, memory, display, disk storage, and other resources on the supported systems.

Table 1-1 Recommendations for Windows Systems

Resource

Recommended Minimum Value

Operating System

Windows XP-Service Pack 2

Windows 2003 R2

Windows Vista

Windows Server 2008

CPU Type and Speed

Pentium IV 2 GHz MHz or faster

Memory

1 GB RAM

Display

65536 colors, set to at least 1024 X 768 resolution

Hard Drive Space

42 MB if you already have JDK 1.6.11 or later

110 MB if you do not have JDK 1.6.11 or later

Java SDK

JDK 1.6.11 or later for Windows, available at: http://www.javasoft.com (If you do not have this SDK installed, you can use SQL Developer, but you must download and install the kit for Windows systems with no Java SDK or with a Sun Java SDK release lower than 1.6.11.)

1.2 Installing and Starting SQL Developer

This section contains subsections with instructions for installing SQL Developer on all supported systems.

SQL Developer does not require an installer. To install SQL Developer, you will need an unzip tool. You can download a free, cross-platform unzip tool, Info-Zip, available at http://www.info-zip.org/.

Important:

Do not install SQL Developer into any existing ORACLE_HOME. You will not be able to uninstall it using Oracle Universal Installer.

Important:

If you are using a pre-release (Early Adopter) version of SQL Developer, and if you want to be able to continue to use this pre-release version after installing the official release kit, you must unzip the official release kit into a different directory than the one used for the pre-release version.

If Oracle Database (Release 11 or later) is also installed, a version of SQL Developer is also included and is accessible through the menu system under Oracle. This version of SQL Developer is separate from any SQL Developer kit that you download and unzip on your own, so do not confuse the two, and do not unzip a kit over the SQL Developer files that are included with Oracle Database. Suggestion: Create a shortcut for the SQL Developer executable file that you install, and always use it to start SQL Developer.

For Windows systems, there are two kits: one for systems on which the Sun Java SDK release 1.6.11 or later is installed, and another for systems with no Java SDK or a Sun Java SDK release earlier than 1.6.11. Be sure to download the appropriate kit.

Before you install SQL Developer, look at the remaining sections of this guide to see if you need to know or do anything else first.

The steps for installing SQL Developer depend on whether or not you will be using it on a Windows system that does not have the Sun Java SDK release 1.6.11 or later installed:

For a Windows system with the Sun Java release 1.6.11 or later installed, follow the instructions in Section 1.2.1.

For all other systems (Linux and Mac OS X systems, and Windows systems with no Java SDK or a Sun Java SDK release earlier than 1.6.11 or later installed), follow the instructions in Section 1.2.2.

1.2.1 Windows Systems with JDK1.6.11 or Later

To install and start SQL Developer on a Windows system on which the Sun Java J2SE JDK 1.6.11 or later is installed, follow these steps:

Unzip the SQL Developer kit into a folder (directory) of your choice (for example, C:\Program Files). This folder will be referred to as <sqldeveloper_install>.

Unzipping the SQL Developer kit causes a folder named sqldeveloper to be created under the <sqldeveloper_install> folder (for example, C:\Program Files\sqldeveloper). It also causes many files and folders to be placed in and under that directory.

To start SQL Developer, go to <sqldeveloper_install>\sqldeveloper, and double-click sqldeveloper.exe.

If you are asked to enter the full pathname for java.exe, click Browse and find java.exe. For example, the path might have a name similar to C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_14\bin\java.exe.

After SQL Developer starts, you can connect to any database by right-clicking the Connections node in the Connections Navigator and selecting New Connection. Alternatively, if you have any exported connections (see Section 1.4 or Section 1.10), you can import these connections and use them.

You can learn about SQL Developer by clicking Help, then Table of Contents, and reading the help topics under SQL Developer Concepts and Usage.

1.2.2 Linux and Mac OS X Systems, and Windows Systems without JDK 1.6.11 or Later

Unzip the SQL Developer kit into a directory (folder) of your choice. This directory location will be referred to as <sqldeveloper_install>.

Unzipping the SQL Developer kit causes a directory named sqldeveloper to be created under the <sqldeveloper_install> directory. It also causes many files and folders to be placed in and under that directory.

To start SQL Developer, go to the sqldeveloper directory under the <sqldeveloper_install> directory, and do one of the following, as appropriate for your operating system:

On Linux and Mac OS X systems, run sh sqldeveloper.sh.

On Windows systems, double-click sqldeveloper.exe.

After SQL Developer starts, you can connect to any database by right-clicking the Connections node in the Connections Navigator and selecting New Connection. Alternatively, if you have any exported connections (see Section 1.4 or Section 1.10), you can import these connections and use them.

You can learn about SQL Developer by clicking Help, then Table of Contents, and reading the help topics under SQL Developer Concepts and Usage.

1.3 Migrating User Settings from a Previous Release

The first time you start SQL Developer after installing it or after adding any extensions, you are asked if you want to migrate your user settings from a previous release. (This occurs regardless of whether there was a previous release on your system.)

Note:

Migration of user settings is supported only from SQL Developer Release 1.1.3 or later to Release 2.1.

These settings refer to database connections, reports, and certain SQL Developer user preferences that you set in a previous version by clicking Tools and then Preferences. However, some user preferences are not saved, and you must re-specify these using the new release.

To migrate user settings from a previous SQL Developer release:

Unzip the Release 2.1 kit into an empty directory (folder). Do not delete or overwrite the directory into which you unzipped the kit for the previous SQL Developer release.

When you start SQL Developer Release 2.1, click Yes when asked if you want to migrate settings from a previous release.

In the dialog box that is displayed, you can accept the default option to migrate the settings from the most recent SQL Developer installation. Or, if you want to migrate the settings from an earlier installation, you can click to show all builds and then select the desired one.

1.4 Migrating Information from Previous Releases

If you have used a previous release of SQL Developer, you may want to preserve database connections that you have been using. To preserve database connections, save your existing database connections in an XML file. To save the connections, right-click the Connections node in the Connections Navigator and select Export Connections. After you complete the installation described in this guide, you can use those connections by right-clicking the Connections node in the Connections Navigator and selecting Import Connections

If you want to use any user-defined reports or the SQL history from a previous version, see Section 1.5 for information about where these are located. If you have user-defined reports and SQL history from Release 1.0, they are modified by any later SQL Developer release to a format that is different from and incompatible with Release 1.0.

SQL Developer preferences (specified by clicking Tools and then Preferences) from a pre-release version of the current release cannot currently be saved and reused; you must re-specify any desired preferences.

1.5Location of User-Related Information

SQL Developer stores user-related information in several places, with the specific location depending on the operating system and certain environment specifications. User-related information includes user-defined reports, user-defined snippets, SQL Worksheet history, code templates, and SQL Developer user preferences. In most cases, your user-related information is stored outside the SQL Developer installation directory hierarchy, so that it is preserved if you delete that directory and install a new version.

The user-related information is stored in or under the IDE_USER_DIR environment variable location, if defined; otherwise as indicated in the following table, which shows the typical default locations (under a directory or in a file) for specific types of resources on different operating systems. (Note the period in the name of any directory named .sqldeveloper.)

The following table shows the typical default locations (under a directory or in a file) for specific types of resources on different operating systems. (Note the period in the name of any directory named .sqldeveloper.)

If you want to prevent other users from accessing your user-specific SQL Developer information, you must ensure that the appropriate permissions are set on the directory where that information is stored or on a directory above it in the path hierarchy. For example, on a Windows system you may want to ensure that the SQL Developer folder and the \<user-name>\Application Data\SQL Developer folder under Documents and Settings are not shareable; and on a Linux or Mac OS X system you may want to ensure that the ~/.sqldeveloper directory is not world-readable.

1.6 Database Certification for SQL Developer (Oracle and Third-Party)

This section describes Oracle and non-Oracle (third-party) databases that are certified for use with SQL Developer.

For any DB2 release: db2jcc.jar and db2jcc_license_cu.jar files required; available from IBM.

Microsoft Access

Access 97

Access 2000

Access XP (2002)

Access 2003

Access 2007

For any Access release: no JDBC driver needed, but you must ensure read access to system tables in the .mdb file.

Microsoft SQL Server

SQL Server 7

SQL Server 2000

SQL Server 2005

For any Microsoft SQL Server release: JDBC driver jtds-1.2.jar required; included in jtds-1.2-dist.zip available from sourceforge.net; also available through Help, Check for Updates.

MySQL

MySQL 3.x

MySQL 4.x

MySQL 5.x

For any MySQL release: JDBC driver required. For MySQL 5.x: mysql-connector-java-5.0.4-bin.jar, which is included in mysql-connector-java-5.0.4.zip; also available through Help, Check for Updates. (Do not use the latest MySQL driver 5.1.)

Sybase Adaptive Server

Sybase 12

Sybase 15

For any Sybase Adaptive Server release: JDBC driver jtds-1.2.jar required; included in jtds-1.2-dist.zip available from sourceforge.net; also available through Help, Check for Updates.

Teradata

Teradata 12

JDBC driver files tdgssconfig.jar and terajdbc4.jar required; included (along with a readme.txt file) in the TeraJDBC__indep_indep.12.00.00.110.zip or TeraJDBC__indep_indep.12.00.00.110.tar download.

For information about creating and using connections to third-party databases, see the information about database connections in the SQL Developer online help or Oracle SQL Developer User's Guide.

1.7 Advanced Security for JDBC Connection to the Database

You are encouraged to use Oracle Advanced Security to secure a JDBC connection to the database. Both the JDBC OCI and the JDBC Thin drivers support at least some of the Oracle Advanced Security features. If you are using the OCI driver, you can set relevant parameters in the same way that you would in any Oracle client setting. The JDBC Thin driver supports the Oracle Advanced Security features through a set of Java classes included with the JDBC classes in a Java Archive (JAR) file and supports security parameter settings through Java properties objects.

Also, check the SQL Developer release notes (readme.txt file) to see if there are any currently known issues regarding accessibility.

1.9 Using a Screen Reader and Java Access Bridge with SQL Developer

To make the best use of our accessibility features, Oracle Corporation recommends the following minimum technology stack:

Windows 2000 or Windows XP

Java Sun J2SE JDK 1.6.11 or later

Sun Java Access Bridge 1.1 or higher

JAWS 3.70.87, or 5.10 or higher

Follow these steps to set up a screen reader and Java Access Bridge. If you are using JAWS 3.70.87, see the additional configuration information provided after the procedure.

Install the screen reader, if it is not already installed. (See the documentation for your screen reader for more information about installation.)

Install SQL Developer. Note that SQL Developer must run on the same system as the JAWS screen reader.

Download Java Access Bridge for Windows version 1.1. The file you will download is accessbridge-1_1.zip. It is available from http://java.sun.com/products/accessbridge. (See the Java Access Bridge documentation available from this Web site for more information about installation and the Java Access Bridge.)

After downloading the file, extract (unzip) the contents to a folder, for example, accessbridge_home.

The installer first checks the SDK version for compatibility, then the Available Java virtual machines dialog displays.

Click Search disks. Then select to search only the drive that contains the SQL Developer build and the SDK version in the program files directory (if it exists).

The search process can take a long time on a large disk with many instances of SDK or SQL Developer, or when searching multiple disks. However, unless you complete an exhaustive search of your disk, Access Bridge will not be optimally configured, and will not be correctly installed to all of the Java VMs on your system. After selecting the disk to search, click Search.

Confirm that you want to install the Java Access Bridge into each of the Java virtual machines displayed in the dialog, by clicking Install in All.

Click OK when you see the Installation Completed message.

Confirm that the following files have been installed in the Winnt\System32 directory (or the equivalent Windows 2000 or XP directory), or copy them from <accessbridge_home>\installer\installerFiles because they must be in the system path in order to work with SQL Developer:

JavaAccessBridge.dll
JAWTAccessBridge.dll
WindowsAccessBridge.dll

Note that the system directory is required in the PATH system variable.

Confirm that the following files have been installed in the <sqldeveloper_install>\jdk\jre\lib\ext directory, or copy them from <accessbridge_home>\installer\installerFiles:

Confirm that the file accessibility.properties has been installed in the <sqldeveloper_install>\jdk\jre\lib\ext directory, or copy it from <accessbridge_home>\installer\installerFiles. Confirm that the file accessibility.properties includes the following lines:

Only if you are using JAWS version 3.7, do the following: modify the file sqldeveloper.conf located in the folder <sqldeveloper_install>\sqldeveloper\bin to uncomment the AddVMOption line, as shown in the following:

#
# Prepend patches to the bootclasspath. Currently, rtpatch.jar contains a
# patch that fixes the javax.swing.JTree accessibility problems.
# Uncomment the line below if you need to run SQL DeveloperSQL Developer under JAWS.
#
AddVMOption -Xbootclasspath/p:../../jdk/jre/lib/patches/rtpatch.jar

Start your screen reader.

Start SQL Developer.

These steps assume you are running Windows and using a Windows-based screen reader. A console window that contains error information (if any) will open first and then the main SQL Developer window will appear, once SQL Developer has started. Any messages that appear will not affect the functionality of SQL Developer.

1.9.1 Configuring JAWS 3.70 and Access Bridge with SQL Developer

The following combinations of Access Bridge file versions are necessary to achieve optimal functionality with JAWS 3.70, since this version of the screen reader uses older Java technology than is used in SQL Developer. There are two stacks of software technology listed below for those who want to use either version 1.0.3 or 1.0.4 of the Access Bridge. Also required in the system32 directory is a copy of the latest version of the Access Bridge jar file.

Access Bridge v. 1.0.3 Configuration for SQL Developer

Place the following files in the <sqldeveloper_install>\jdk\jre\lib\ext directory:

1.10 Uninstalling SQL Developer

Before you uninstall SQL Developer, if you plan to install SQL Developer (the same or an updated version) later, you may want to save your existing database connections; and if so, see Section 1.4 before uninstalling.

To uninstall SQL Developer, remove the entire SQL Developer installation directory (that is, the directory named sqldeveloper and all directories and files under it in the hierarchy).

If you also want to remove all user-specific SQL Developer information, you should also delete the directory under which that information is stored (that is, the SQL Developer user information directory). For the location of this directory, see Section 1.5.

If you have created a shortcut for SQL Developer, and if you do not plan to install SQL Developer into the same location again, you should remove that shortcut or modify the shortcut properties to reflect the new location.

1.11 SQL Developer Documentation

SQL Developer provides user documentation in the Oracle SQL Developer User's Guide and in the online help. To see the help, click the Help menu, or click the Help button or press the F1 key in relevant contexts while you are using SQL Developer.

In addition to the user's guide and installation guide, the following migration-related guides are available: